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(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 21, 2017 South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma arrives for a presidential Gala dinner at the NASREC Expo Centre in Johannesburg on the eve of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) 54th National Conference. Pressure is mounting on South Africa’s scandal-tarred president, Jacob Zuma, to leave office ahead of elections next year. / AFP PHOTO / WIKUS DE WET

South Africans were facing political uncertainty on Wednesday after the ruling ANC party cancelled a meeting that could have removed embattled President Jacob Zuma from office.

Zuma is under growing pressure to resign in favour of his deputy and African National Congress party leader Cyril Ramaphosa, but local media have suggested Zuma is holding on for a favourable exit deal.

Parliament speaker Baleka Mbete told television broadcaster eNCA on Wednesday that Ramaphosa would soon give an update on the political turmoil.

“We can’t preempt what is going to happen and therefore we really still have to respect the fact that there are consultations between the two presidents,” she said.

Zuma and Ramaphosa have been holding talks in Cape Town about the president’s future that they described on Tuesday as “constructive”.

The announcement that the ANC’s national executive, which has the power to recall the scandal-tainted president, would not meet on Wednesday followed Tuesday’s dramatic cancellation of a key parliament speech by the president.

Zuma had been due to deliver the State of the Nation Address, which was scheduled for Thursday, and is the centrepiece of the political calendar, setting the government’s priorities for the year ahead.

After opposition pressure for a delay, the president agreed to postpone it, apparently fearing it would be disrupted by opposition lawmakers calling for his resignation.

The delay heightened speculation that Zuma could finally yield to calls to step down.

Many ANC members are pushing for Cyril Ramaphosa, the new head of the party since December, to replace Zuma, 75, as president immediately.

But Zuma loyalists have said that the serving president should complete his second and final term in office, which would end when elections are held next year.

“I can say to you that there are different views,” the party’s deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte said Tuesday.

Speaker Mbete told reporters that the State of the Nation address had been postponed because there was “little likelihood” that it would be held without disruption.

– ‘Agreement to go’? –
In previous years, opposition lawmakers have shouted Zuma down and been ejected from the chamber by security guards in a melee of flying fists.

“We thought that we needed to create room for establishing a much more conducive political atmosphere in parliament,” Mbete added, saying a new date would be announced shortly.

Independent political analyst Ralph Mathekga told AFP that Zuma’s departure had been mishandled by the ANC.

“Unfortunately the reality caught up with them, so now the ANC is trying to take control,” he said.

“The fact that they cancelled Wednesday’s ANC meeting probably means there is an agreement for him to go,” he added.

The power struggle has rocked the ANC, the storied liberation party which led the fight against white-minority rule but has since lost much of its public support.

Despite the attacks on him, Zuma still enjoys some backing within the party, particularly among rural members and within his own Zulu community.

His presidency has been dominated by an economic slowdown, record unemployment and allegations of corruption.

He faces several court cases, including action relating to 783 payments he received allegedly linked to an arms deal before he came to power in 2009.

Many graft allegations against him have centred on the wealthy Gupta family, who are accused of unfairly obtaining lucrative government contracts and even being able to choose ministerial appointments.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation, which promotes the legacy of South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon, has called for Zuma to go as he had “demonstrated that he is not fit to govern”.

In a damning statement, it said there was “overwhelming evidence that systematic looting by patronage networks linked to President Zuma have betrayed the country Nelson Mandela dreamed of.”

Ramaphosa, 65, is a former trade unionist who led talks to end apartheid rule in the early 1990s and then became a multi-millionaire businessman before returning to politics.